The city has a chance to create a great neighborhood on Rincon Hill

Published 4:00 am, Thursday, September 29, 2005

Photo: Brant Ward

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Traffic is being metered to allow buses and construction vehicles around the clock tower being demolsihed.
On San Francisco's Rincon Hill, demolition crews are working to bring down the old Bank of America clocktower at 1st and Harrison Streets.
Brant Ward 9/27/05 less

place29001_ward.jpg
Traffic is being metered to allow buses and construction vehicles around the clock tower being demolsihed.
On San Francisco's Rincon Hill, demolition crews are working to bring down the ... more

Photo: Brant Ward

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An architect's photo montage shows the Rincon Hill complex as seen from the northwest, placed in the actual cityscape. Courtesy Solomon Cordwell Buenz & Associates

An architect's photo montage shows the Rincon Hill complex as seen from the northwest, placed in the actual cityscape. Courtesy Solomon Cordwell Buenz & Associates

The city has a chance to create a great neighborhood on Rincon Hill

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The clock tower atop Rincon Hill doesn't tell the time anymore, and by the end of November, there won't be a clock tower at all. A 50-year-old landmark will be taken down, and a pair of towers, 55 and 45 stories, will rise in its place.

I grew up in the East Bay and remember the clock tower standing in splendid isolation to greet me upon my arrival in the city, with downtown seemingly far away to the north, so it's strange to see backhoes and demolition crews chewing away at the tower. Yes, I know the past is gone -- the Union 76 banner was replaced by a bank logo in 1995 -- but that doesn't make the passage of time any less jarring.

That clock gone black is the most visible sign yet that a new Rincon Hill neighborhood is coming our way. Within two years, we'll start to see a new skyline, with thousands of residential units filling streamlined towers at least 10 stories higher than anything there today. In theory, it will be a place laced with urbane plazas and broad sidewalks, and marked by architecture that does more than just block views.

A place that will indicate whether San Francisco can still create great neighborhoods from scratch.

When the clock tower reached its present height of 183 feet in 1955, San Francisco was the unquestioned center of the Bay Area and, as far as many residents were concerned, the West Coast's only big city of note. The Financial District stopped at Market Street; "south of the slot" were flophouses and warehouses and a maze of ramps curling to and from the Bay Bridge.

Now most of those ramps are gone, the warehouses have been converted to lofts or office space, and the blocks south of Market Street near the water are indistinguishable from what's north. On Rincon Hill, midsize condo towers already crowd the doomed clock tower.

And not just the look of the city has changed. Many of today's residents -- the ones drawn by the climate or the lifestyle or the politics -- don't see San Francisco as a regional hub at all. They're focused on their own neighborhoods, their preferred cafes, their favorite outdoor destinations.

The funny thing is, the neighborhoods that work the best are the ones were got slapped together long ago. Space was at a premium, so houses were jammed close together; cars weren't that common, so commercial districts were pulled in close to transit lines.

These days, by contrast, development is shaped by process and politics -- with mixed results. Planning too often is nothing more than an attempt to satisfy the demands of every conceivable interest group. For most politicians, meanwhile, the long-term look and feel of San Francisco isn't nearly as important as making your most strident constituents happy.

At Rincon Hill, for example, activists from areas nearly a mile to the west jumped in after years of planning to complain that -- because they, too, were south of Market Street -- towers on Rincon Hill were bound to send waves of gentrification rippling their way. Supervisor Chris Daly happily endorsed this geographically dubious claim, boosted the fee on developers from $14 to $25 per square foot for a "community stabilization fund," and a majority of supervisors rubber-stamped the deal.

That vote on the final version of the Rincon Hill plan was on Aug. 8. Three days later, the project dubbed One Rincon Hill was approved by the Planning Commission. It includes 712 housing units in two slender shafts of 55 and 45 stories at First and Harrison streets. There will also be a $20 million contribution to the city's affordable-housing development fund.

For my taste, the towers are 10 stories too tall, but the design by Solomon Cordwell Buenz of Chicago is head and shoulders above any of the towers now in the area -- not just literally but figuratively. The look is clean and modern, with aluminum panels and plenty of glass; if developer Michael Kriozere of San Diego doesn't skimp on the details, the result should be a striking accent on the skyline.

And now that the planning and politics are behind us, the details are what count. Rosy visions aren't enough: If every possible tower gets shoved into place, or if what gets built looks crude and cheap, future generations will cringe.

The right tone is being set by interim Planning Director Dean Macris, who returned last winter to the post he held from 1981 to 1992.

During that time, San Francisco gained national attention (not all favorable) for its ambitious and extremely detailed downtown plan. Now, Macris says, he wants San Francisco to gain a reputation for something else: contemporary architecture of lasting merit.

"The day when you hired the architects to get through the process is over. A quality building will be what gets you through the process," Macris vows. Asked how he defines quality, Macris ticks off such basics as good proportions and high-quality materials -- but also innovation.

"People now are receptive to fresh ideas in architecture," Macris explains. "If we have the rules right, and developers bring in a good architect, let it go from there."

The rules are in place. And the money will be coming so that the public realm of pedestrian-friendly plazas and sidewalks can evolve.

Now comes the hard part.

It's easy to take down a clock tower; it's tough to create a community. Let's hope San Francisco is up to the task.

In other news: Rincon Hill's timepiece isn't the only thing fading away -- so is the San Francisco branch of Builders Booksource. While the Berkeley branch of this valued architectural resource will stay open, the Ghirardelli Square outpost closes at the end of October. Until then, all books will be 20 percent off, so shop early and often.

Also fading away -- but only temporarily! -- is this very column. Place will spend October on hiatus, as we literary types like to say. See you in November.

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